Compassionate Cities

Once it was difficult to see end of life care beyond conventional medical intervention, but hospice and palliative care introduced a more holistic approach, providing quality of life for the dying and their families. This ground-breaking work takes end-of-life care beyond these palliative boundaries, describing a public health vision that involves whole communities adopting a compassionate approach to dying, death and loss. Written by a leading academic in the field of death and bereavement, this text outlines the historical, political and conceptual basis of compassionate cities, providing a community development model for end-of-life care.Moving away from infection control and health promotion Allan Kellehear invites us to think of a third wave movement of public health, joining empathy, equality and action together as practical policies. Presenting a radical new perspective to death, ageing and public health, Compassionate Cities is essential reading for academics and professionals alike.

'Compassionate Cities is an extraordinary book in both conception and execution.' - Mortality, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2006' Professor Kellehear fuses two approaches which might normally be considered incompatible:The book offers an overview of the place of death and loss in modern societies; in addition it provides the steady pragmatism of a how to manual.' - Julie Clark, University of Glasgow, UK, 'Compassionate Cities is an extraordinary book in both conception and execution.' - Mortality, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2006

Allan Kellehear is Professor of Palliative Care, and Director of the Palliative Care Unit, at La Trobe University, Australia.